Developing and improving new features for your SaaS platform can take a massive investment. Unfortunately, the majority of software product features—80% according to some studies—go unused.
That’s why if you put your money into high-value features like integrated payment functionalities, you still need to go one step further to ensure they receive a warm welcome. Optimizing your payment feature adoption funnel from awareness to usage will drive user engagement and increase software value.
Streamlining the user onboarding process, conducting product analytics, or enhancing the app experience alone isn’t enough when introducing new features. We want users to adopt and make use of your payment features effectively.
So, let’s understand how feature adoption exactly works and how it can help maximize your SaaS success.
TL;DR
- Feature adoption is when users integrate new features—like payment processing—into their day-to-day operations. Some users may jump right in after the launch; others may require more push.
- Done correctly, payment feature adoptions can help SaaS companies enhance user experience, boost revenue potential, and gain a competitive edge.
- Encouraging payment feature adoption is a long-term goal, not a one-off. Start with making features visible, educating users, employing gamification and incentives, collecting feedback, and constantly improving the features based on user input.
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What is Feature Adoption?
Feature adoption describes how users embrace new features or functionalities rolled out by a service provider. Put another way, it indicates when and to what extent users recognize the value of these particular features.
Feature adoption occurs when users install the update, familiarize themselves with the new functionality, and utilize it in their day-to-day.
Feature adoption vs. product adoption
Feature adoption represents a more targeted metric than product adoption. While product adoption encompasses overall product usage, feature adoption focuses solely on the adoption and interaction with individual functionalities.
Adoption rates can differ between user segments. Some may jump right in, while others may cling to the traditional and familiar tools they’ve been using. That’s why SaaS companies employ feature adoption strategies tailored to their target users’ needs.
For example: For payment features, multicurrency transactions and intuitive user interfaces can significantly boost adoption. But before we get into these strategies, let’s first explore the concept and significance of payment feature adoption.
Payment Feature Adoption: What Is It and Why It Matters
Payment feature adoption is the process of integrating and leveraging payment-related functionalities within your platform.
It expands your niche offerings, from accepting diverse payment methods to managing subscriptions and automating invoicing processes.
If implemented correctly, payment features can enhance your platform’s value proposition in the following ways:
- Enhanced user experience. 65% of businesses reported spending 14 hours per week on administrative tasks related to payment collection. Your clients’ merchants can streamline these processes by using your platform’s payment feature, saving them time and effort.
- Higher revenue potential. The payment processing market is projected to spike to $198 billion with a 12% CAGR. It’s driven by the growing use of solutions and merchants looking for alternative payment options. By releasing features tailored to your user base (e.g., buy now, pay later options), you can capitalize on this market trend and tap into higher revenue potential.
- Competitive advantage. Integrated payment processing can differentiate your brand from competitors in a crowded market. Users are more likely to opt for an all-in-one software solution with payment features than using and paying for multiple platforms.
However, factors like convenience, security, trust, availability, and familiarity come into play when it comes to payment feature adoption.
The more user-friendly, secure, and useful your payment features are, the higher the chances of people using them. Consider following these strategies to inspire long-term payment feature adoption.
6 Strategies to Encourage Seamless Payment Feature Integration
Some users are laggards. Everett Rogers’ classic Diffusion of Innovation Theory describes this group as bound by tradition, conservative, and skeptical of change. They can be challenging to bring on board.
New payment options may frighten them, especially if they’re used to existing ones. They may have concerns about migrating their current accounts and disrupting their workflows.
The following techniques and case studies illustrate effective approaches to encourage seamless payment feature integration and drive higher adoption rates.
1. Understand your users to deliver tailored solutions
You can drive feature adoption by building payment features that address users’ pain points and are compatible with their workflows. For this, you need to reorient yourself with what customers want and need.
Surveys and questionnaires are quick ways to gather this information and analyze user behavior. It will clue you in on use cases and user segments that would benefit most from this new feature.
For example: eCommerce startups may require a simplified system with one-click checkout and saved payment information to reduce friction during checkout. Meanwhile, mobile-first users may prefer a seamless in-app payment experience that offers convenience and speed.
Let’s take the case of shelter SaaS company Shelterluv. The company initially used Stripe for its payment processing solution, Shelterpay. However, the integration fell short of their expectations, even disappointing them in two ways:
- Stripe’s reporting didn’t meet the needs of Shelterluv client’s accountants and other finance managers.
- Stripe held cash for a Shelterluv customer in Nevada and refused to release them despite multiple requests until brought directly to their CEO.
They finally switched to Stax after months of gathering and evaluating these inputs. In only two weeks, they had met half of their annual goal for pet adoptions and raised more than $15 million in donations. Reporting will also be simpler and more detailed, with a dedicated Stax expert to handle any issues that may arise.
2. Create awareness with accessible and visible features
In the absence of awareness, even the most innovative product features won’t be adopted. Make sure your new payment features are visible and easily accessible in the interface.
In-app messaging and notifications can alert users of their availability. Meanwhile, visual cues like pop-ups and banners can guide users where to find them.
Outside of your app or website, you can share feature announcements on social media platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook to generate buzz and word-of-mouth.
Take this example from the professional service automation platform BigTime Software. On Facebook, it announced a product update featuring improved payment data flow between BigTime Wallet and Sage Intacct, a cloud-based accounting software. The post also informed readers of a beta feature for billing clients in their local currency.
Source: BigTime Software
But it didn’t end there. Notice the CTA that directed users to a blog post explaining the new payment features in detail. This strategy increases awareness and provides in-depth information to interested users.
Source: BigTime Software
The more visibility and feature information you provide, the more users are likely to engage with it. (Yes, you can do this even if your new feature is still in beta mode.)
3. Educate users about new features to eliminate barriers
Educating users about new features takes feature discovery to a whole new level. By providing functionality tooltips and tutorials, you empower users to leverage the payment features to their advantage.
Walk users through the process of setting up and using the specific feature. It can be video tutorials or interactive walkthroughs demonstrating how the payment feature integrates seamlessly into users’ workflows.
Mango, a practice management tool, does the same to help users navigate the features, particularly complex ones like billing and invoicing.
They offer webinars to thoroughly educate users on how to make the most of Mango’s Stax-powered payment features.
Source: Mango
In your user guides, add pre-designed templates that showcase where to input information. These templates serve as visual aids, showcasing the step-by-step process and making it easier for users to follow along.
For instance, you can provide sample templates for creating invoices, setting up recurring payments, or configuring payment preferences. These guides allow users to easily replicate the required inputs, resulting in a more accessible learning experience.
4. Gamify and reward users to motivate continuous use
Researchers found that gamified mobile money payment systems connect with users’ value systems and fulfill their desired needs. So, make the user experience more rewarding to boost adoption and user retention.
Explore no-code solutions like UserGuiding and Mambo.IO to implement gamification capabilities in your interface. They can help you display leaderboards, badges, or progress bars to incentivize users’ feature adoption and usage.
You could, for example, have a point-based platform where users earn points or virtual currency for each successful payment transaction. Points earned can then be used for discounts, special deals, or access to premium features in your software.
Gamification techniques tap into human’s innate desire for achievement and recognition. Thus, infusing elements of fun, competition, and rewards into your payment feature experience can motivate users to engage more.
5. Collect feedback to identify issues or areas for improvement
User feedback is a powerful resource during the payment feature post-launch stage. It’s your direct line to users’ thoughts, opinions, and suggestions to refine your offerings.
Collect feedback from users regarding their experience with the payment feature. It may be through surveys, in-app feedback forms, or customer care channels. Then, build a feedback loop by responding and taking action based on the insights received.
If users find your payment process complex or suggest additional customization options, iterate on the features to foster higher adoption rates. This iterative process not only resolves issues but also shows users how you value their opinions.
GoJek, a multiservice tech platform, leaned into user feedback to drive improvements. Drivers on GoJek’s Driver App mostly stuck to the basic functionalities and didn’t bother with the updates. The team performed user surveys to gather insights on app usage and feature awareness.
From this, they were able to learn which features need fixing. They streamlined the Driver App interface, simplified the menus, and enhanced overall usability with the data at hand. Through multiple iterations, the redesign improved feature uptake, with a 50% increase in visits to the menu featuring driver-friendly benefits.
6. Refine and iterate consistently to meet evolving user needs
Payment features require continuous improvement and iteration, or they’ll end up being part of the 80% of features that are rarely or never used.
Monitor feature adoption metrics right after the feature release. Track key metrics, such as monthly user logins, monthly active users (MAU), number of feature activations per user, net promoter score (NPS), churn rate, and retention rate.
These insights can’t only tell how well or poor your user engagement and feature usage frequency are. They can also help determine your monthly feature adoption rate, calculated as:
Monthly Feature Adoption % = (Feature MAU / Monthly User Logins) * 100
A higher adoption rate suggests that users are successfully integrating and utilizing the feature in their workflows. Conversely, a lower adoption rate may indicate the need for improvements or adjustments.
Be sure to identify and tweak any issues negatively affecting your results. Even with favorable outcomes, measure performance and refine your features continuously. This ensures they’re functioning optimally and delivering the intended value to users.
Elevate User Experiences with Effective Payment Feature Adoption
Payment feature adoption is crucial for SaaS organizations and ISVs looking to develop extensive solutions for existing and new users. It enables customers to fully utilize your features’ full capabilities, which in turn enhances your platform’s overall value proposition.
Positive feature adoption rates require ongoing effort, but you can start by:
- making features visible
- educating users
- using gamification and incentives
- collecting and responding to feedback
- continuously improving and iterating the features
These payment feature adoption strategies are easier to implement with a reliable payment processing partner. Optimize user journey today—Stax Connect fuels platform growth under the Payments-Led Growth strategy. Our adoption expertise enables partners to increase their attachment rates and implement new features. Schedule a free demo or contact us to get started.
FAQs about Feature Adoption
Q: What is feature adoption?
Feature adoption is when users integrate new features (e.g., SaaS payment processing) into their day-to-day operations. Positive feedback, user engagement, and referrals are some indicators that suggest successful feature adoption.
Q: How can I improve my feature adoption rate?
Listen to your users’ pain points and make it easy for them to see the feature’s value. Post-launch, ask them how the new feature benefited or limited them. Only by knowing their input can you make iterative feature upgrades to boost feature adoption.
Q: What is the difference between feature adoption and product adoption?
Product adoption is a broad term that refers to users’ acceptance and use of the entire software product. It encompasses the overall product usage, including all features and functionalities it offers. If users have adopted the product, they’ve integrated it into their daily routines and utilize it regularly to achieve their goals. The focus is on the product as a whole.
On the other hand, feature adoption is more specific and targeted. It refers to how users embrace and use individual features or functionalities rolled out by the service provider. This could be an update to the existing product or a new addition. It is more focused on the adoption and interaction with specific functionalities, not the product as a whole. For instance, a payment feature adoption would refer to the integration and use of payment-related functionalities within the platform.
Q: How can I measure feature adoption strategy results?
Track the total number of users adopting the feature and the duration of adoption (say, a month). Then, divide the feature’s monthly active users (MAU) by monthly logins and multiply the answer by 100 to get your monthly feature adoption rate.
Also monitor other retention-related KPIs like churn rate and feature stickiness to gauge your strategy’s effectiveness.
Q: Can I apply these tips to all types of products & services?
Product managers and product teams can apply these tips to encourage feature adoption across industries and offerings. While implementation may vary, the underlying principles and strategies discussed in this article remain relevant and adaptable.
Q: How can I ensure new features don’t degrade the user experience?
Test and iterate on them before the official feature release. With the help of pre-release test users, address any usability, functionality, or integration issues before introducing the features to a wider audience.
